


Reading Between the Lines

by Plutonia



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arthur has Asperger's Autism, Character Study, Gifted Arthur, M/M, ceo Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 07:49:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12054525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plutonia/pseuds/Plutonia
Summary: For a long time Arthur had kept his distance from other people, thinking he simply wasn't made to get along with anyone.Then, Merlin came.





	Reading Between the Lines

To most people, Arthur appeared more than a bit odd on a regular day. To say he was a strange sort of character would certainly be no understatement. 

Since he could remember, he’d never fit in. Oh, sure he had tried, but rarely had it worked out in the way he wanted to. He was standoffish, could never find quite the right words at any given moment, and he had an obsessive personality. He didn’t like being interrupted while he was working on something. He grew overwhelmed easily, making him lash out in a manner at times. It had caused his family much grief when he was younger, and especially his father had always been so disappointed because Arthur simply couldn’t keep himself under control.

The only reason they hadn’t dragged him to a therapist much earlier was because Arthur was gifted, a highly intelligent boy always lauded by the teachers even as he failed keeping up with his peers in everything else. 

But when the time came for him to go to secondary school, and he had such a bad episode over the summer that even his father’s business associates started to enquire after him, Uther had finally had enough. He’d dragged him, kicking and screaming, to a psychologist, someone to at last tell him what on earth was wrong with his son.

The verdict came hard. ‘Your son is distressed because his life is being drastically rearranged without anyone giving him the chance to adjust. It is a usual reaction for people like him.’

‘What does he have?’, his father had asked, his face stony but the corner of his eye twitching, like it always did when he was on the brink of shouting in rage.

‘It’s called Asperger's Syndrome.’

For his father, it was just a word on a paper, a clinical diagnosis to put a name to his son’s strange behavior. But for Arthur, it changed everything.

He was still expected to present himself as a model student of course, calm and intelligent, courteous and in control. It wasn’t like Uther had suddenly grown tolerant of unruly behavior, but in his own mind Arthur had grown an entirely different outlook on himself and the world in relation to him. 

He started keeping his distance from people. It was true, he didn’t understand their hidden language at all, the unspoken cues that made up a great part of their communication. He couldn’t see the sense in it, always voicing his thoughts aloud directly, and having expected others to do the same. It couldn’t be done, so he avoided having to enter a situation where he would be lost like that. He started memorizing etiquette and manner, which got him through business interaction without hinder, and his father was content.

His employees thought him cold, unapproachable. Arthur knew because his sister told him about it all the time, nagging him to socialize more when he just wanted to be left alone. What did she know, the great harpy? She’d always been their father’s model child.

For a long time Arthur was genuinely able to say he was content with his life. Sure, he wasn’t exactly happy, but he wasn’t wallowing in depression either. He simply was. 

Then Merlin happened.

Merlin was to be his new PA, that Morgana had hired after his old one had quit on him, being that he was quote ‘simply impossible to work with’. 

At first, Arthur had questioned his sister’s sanity that she would send him such a man - Merlin was clumsy, disorganized and distracted. He met each and every challenge head on, always answering with brazen cheek when Arthur tried to put him in place. 

He’d thought for a while that maybe, maybe Merlin was like him, because he seemed to say exactly what he thought, no caring for the consequences. Soon Arthur realized though, that he was the only one with whom Merlin acted like this. With others he was cheeky, sure, but in a more charming, self-confident way that could only come from someone who knew exactly what kind of unspoken messages they were giving out, along with the spoken ones.

In short, Merlin had puzzled him, like no other person had ever done before, and for months on end without Arthur getting to any conclusion.

‘It’s quite simple, brother dearest’, Morgana had said, that damnable smirk on her painted lips that always infuriated him, because he knew from experience that she was in on something she wasn’t telling him.

‘You like him.’

It had taken Arthur quite some time to figure out what she meant by that.

It had started with the hugs. Usually, Arthur avoided those as if people were trying to transfer him deadly diseases, as he could not stand the brush of fabric against fabric, or even unfamiliar skin over his. He would start tingling all over, a disgusting feeling that was incredibly hard to shake. Merlin had at first tried giving him those kinds of hugs too, but he’d soon stopped when he’d realized they made Arthur uncomfortable. No one had ever done that before.

Instead, he gave bear hugs now. Arthur liked the pressure, it made him feel grounded and sure in himself when everything else was always so overwhelming. And Merlin was patient, always making sure not to tackle him, knowing that Arthur had to stay in control to comfortably accept these sensations.

But it wasn’t done with the hugs. Merlin, he seemed to understand Arthur on a deeper level, even though he always claimed him to be brain-addled, insulting him at every turn. But no, in only the span of a year Merlin came to be the one person that knew him best, from the simple things like the way he preferred his coffee, to the big ones, like recognizing the signs of Arthur having a Bad Day early on, and thus making sure everything was exactly in place just so that Arthur didn’t have a breakdown. 

Arthur loved him for it, he thought one day, intending it a more joking befitting their general theme of witty banter, but suddenly realizing with the clarity of lightning strike, that it was true. 

It was true. He loved Merlin, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.

That was why, when Merlin came into office the following Monday, smile on his lips and a paper bag in his left hand that Arthur knew would contain two croissants from his favorite bakery - one for each of them - Arthur stepped into his path, clenched his fists, looked him directly in the eyes and said:

‘Do you want to go out with me?’

Well. At least it had been what he’d intended to say. But with the flutter of nervousness making his chest constrict, hands all clammy and his thoughts scrambled in a wild storm, what actually came out was, ‘I want you to go out!’

Merlin looked at him for a moment then, wide eyed, and Arthur was already hurling curses at himself in his mind. He was such an idiot, of course he’d screwed it all up, as usual! This was why he didn’t do social! He simply wasn’t made for it, that was all!

But then a huge grin stretched over Merlin’s face, so huge that the crinkles formed in the corners of his eyes that Arthur secretly thought were adorable. 

And he said, ‘Sure! Where and when would you like to go? Oh, and should I bring flowers?’

**Author's Note:**

> this is a bit self-indulgent. earlier i read a comment of someone about that one episode where Arthur was mind controlled/a simpleton, and somehow felt it was necessary to compare this state to autism. normally i try to be above these things but this irked me majorly, and because i am a person of Spite i thought i'd just write a story about gifted!asperger's!arthur, as a silent fuck you to anyone who thinks we're simple just because we behave/communicate differently
> 
> needless to say, i hope you enjoyed it! if you'd like to tell me what you think that would be neat ;)


End file.
